CES 2012: Razer

After the announcement of the Blade, Razer seems to be going under the radar. There were new stuff over at their website, such as some licensed products, Tiamat headset, and the Stealth Black Widow, but to me they are nothing to get excited about.

However during the CES 2012 at Las Vegas, Razer have announced two new products. One is the Razer Naga Hex, which still doesn’t excite me. But the other one really blow my mind, it’s the revelation of Project Fiona.

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Now let’s talk a little bit about the Naga Hex. It seems that they acknowledge a lot of reviews that mentioned about too much buttons and three (or is it four?) of the side buttons closest to the hand are hard to reach. So they address that issue by releasing the Naga Hex, which simplify the number of side buttons, shape, and locations. See the picture below.

Other things to consider about the Naga Hex are :

1. New graphic design / facelift on the top surface.
2. Physical switch on the bottom of the mouse to switch the function of the side buttons to map keypad number from 1 – 6.
3. Interchangeable thumb rest and compatibility with previous Naga add-ons.
4. The Naga Hex will be driverless and you have to use Razer Synapse 2.0 (the cloud service) to customize the mouse.

More on Razer Naga Hex : http://www.razerzone.com/hex

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Now to the more interesting stuff, which is Project Fiona. In case you haven’t heard, it is a PC gaming  tablet. Yes, it’s in a tablet form factor but powerful enough to run modern PC games. I think Razer is the first at attempting this kind of gaming peripherals.

Razer claims that the Fiona is still a prototype, however they have a working model shown at CES 2012. The Fiona has a 10.1″ (capacitive?) display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 and it will be running Windows 8. It is powered by an Intel Core i7 processor, which is reported to be the nex generation Ivy Bridge. The rest of the specs are as follows:

1. Hybrid user interface for PC gaming
2. Intel® Core™ i7
3. 10.1″ 1280×800 display
4. Full-screen user interface supporting multi-touch
5. 3-axis gyro, magnetometer, accelerometer
6. Force feedback
7. Dolby® 7.1 surround sound
8. WiFi 802.11b/g/n
9. Bluetooth® 3.0

Although I was not quite satisfied with my previous experience with Razer product, I have to admit that the Fiona is getting my full attention. The real question now is: “How much will it cost at launch?” considering the previous Razer Blade was launched with a very steep price tag.

Until that info comes, we’ll just have to be satisfied with what they have on their website and announced at CES 2012. For more info on Project Fiona and the picture gallery, go to http://www.razerzone.com/projectfiona

Puretrak Talent — review

This is my review of the Puretrak Talent mouse pad.

Disclosure:

• The unit in this review is a second hand item that I bought from someone at Liga Game, Indonesian online forum for gamers.
• The review will be subjective to my preferences but I will guarantee that this review is impartial.

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FIRST IMPRESSION

The Puretrak Talent came in a large aluminium tube. Although I can re-use this tube for whatever purpose in the future, it is quite cumbersome. However the packaging is pretty straight forward: logo, picture of product, specs.

I do like the design on the packaging, it’s like giving an intro (if you’d like to call it that way) about what the product should look and feel when I take it out of the tube. So before unboxing it, I can already feel what to expect.

What’s impressive about the specs for me are the size and it’s machine washable. Other claims from Puretrak that caught my attention are: perfect for low sensitivity players (like me), has thick rubber backing which helps when used on uneven surface, super smooth surface, and it is stain resistant.

So are the claims true or false? Read on to find out.

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IN REALITY: SIZE

The real dimensions of the unit that I’m reviewing are 451.25 x 343 x 6 mm. Bummer! It’s smaller than what’s written on the tube. But does that make it unusable? No. It’s still within my preferred mouse pad size. I wonder if the previous owner ever tried to wash this pad but did it wrong so it shrunk. Hmm…

I also did a size and thickness comparison to my Ozone Ground Level L mouse pad. Check out the pictures below!

With it’s size and thickness, most of the times I used it in a vertical position so that some part of it falls down a bit from the ledge of my work desk. Thus the Talent can also function as a comfort pad for my wrist at work.

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PROOFING CLAIMS: STAIN RESISTANT & MACHINE WASHABLE

I didn’t know what the previous owner did to this mouse pad, when I pulled it out of the tube, it got a  thin layer of stain on it. Look at the picture below, it’s in the middle and spread a bit to the left. The colour is a little bit brown on the surface there. When I try to feel that part with my hand, the fabric also felt stiffer unlike the fabric outside of the stain area. It’s like dried out chocolate, coffee, or tea.

What I did is rinse the Talent on the sink, put a little bit of liquid hand soap on the part with the stain, and scrubbed it softly with my hand until the stain was gone. Then I put it flat to let it dry out naturally with an air fan to help it dry faster. It took 1 full day to dry the talent, mostly because of the thick rubber backing. But the stain was gone and I’m quite satisfied with the result.

Stain resistant : No, but you can clean the stain (unless it’s ink or something like that).
Machine washable : Haven’t tried it yet, but at least it is washable.

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PROOFING CLAIMS: SUPER SMOOTH SURFACE, PERFECT FOR LOW SENSITIVITY PLAYERS, CAN ACCOMMODATE UNEVEN SURFACE

Super smooth surface is definitely a yes. Not as smooth as a hard mouse pad, but it’s smoother than the Ozone Ground Level L. However, the Talent is much easier to pick up sweat from your palm / wrist than the Ozone Ground Level L. So bear in mind that you may need to wash it more frequently.

Perfect for low sensitivity players? I think this is more of a personal preference thing. For me, however, I do enjoy the smoothness of the surface. It also helped me to improve my working speed during detailed graphic design work on Photoshop and Illustrator. FYI, for work I set my CPI to 400 and 800, with Windows’ mouse sensitivity property set to 6/11.

Can it accommodate uneven surface? To a certain extent, yes it can. However I did try using it on my spring bed, sometimes I still need to put a thick magazine below the Talent to help level the surface.

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CONCLUSION

The Puretrak Talent has become my preferred mouse pad and I recommend it for anyone who like to use big cloth mouse pad but prefer a smoother feel to the surface.

Pros:
BIG size, smooth surface, washable, thickness gave extra comfort on the wrist, helps on uneven surface, fair price.

Cons:
Smaller dimensions than written on the packaging, heavy, caught sweat easily, cumbersome to carry in your bag.

Click here for the whole photo gallery.

My verdict for the Ozone Ground Level L mouse pad is
4 out of 5

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Rating guide:
0 : Don’t even think about it.
1 : Waste of time and money.
2 : Flawed, could be better.
3 : Good, but there are more options out there.
4 : Great value.
5 : Must have!

All ratings are subjective. They may or may not be accurate to your preferences. However, the review is guaranteed to be impartial.

Ozone Ground Level L Review

This is my review of the Ozone Ground Level L mouse pad.

Disclosure:

• The unit in this review was not provided by Ozone or any store that sell their product. I did not receive any reward from Ozone on making this review.
• The review will be subjective to my preferences but I will guarantee that this review is impartial.

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SPECS: ON PAPER

The Ozone Ground Level L is a cloth mouse pad. The spec, according to Ozone’s website are rubberized base material for the best grip and a soft cloth surface for perfect glide. The mouse pad’s dimensions are 400 x 320 x 3 mm.

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IN REALITY

The real dimensions of the unit that I’m reviewing are 398 x 318 x 3 mm. The numbers may appear smaller but in reality, the surface is large enough for me to move my mouse around.

Since it’s quite thin, I can easily roll and stow it away in my messenger bag (an Everki Track) or my back pack (Djarum Super custom merchandise). However the thickness could not provide an enjoyable experience if put on top of an uneven surface, such as my bed mattress.

The surface is smooth but still gives a bit of restriction to the mouse movement. At first this is annoying to me, but after a while I’m getting used to have a bit of control over my mouse movement. I found it very useful when doing graphic design work while the mouse is set above 1000 dpi. I know… but sometimes I’m just too lazy to switch dpi.

The rubber base is okay. It can stick quite nicely on top of my wooden table, but it’s not as sticky as the one on the Razer Vespula. Well, unless you’re using your mouse in a brutal manner, then this is not a problem at all.

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CONCLUSION

The Ozone Ground Level L is definitely worth it. It’s quite cheap compared to other surfaces on the market and it gets the job done. There are 4 sizes available: S, M, L and XT (extra thick, 6 mm thick).

Pros:
Cheap price, available in different sizes, rubber base does not smell.

Cons:
Not suitable for uneven surface.

Click here for the whole photo gallery.

My verdict for the Ozone Ground Level L mouse pad is
4 out of 5

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Rating guide:
0 : Don’t even think about it.
1 : Waste of time and money.
2 : Flawed, could be better.
3 : Good, but there are more options out there.
4 : Great value.
5 : Must have!

All ratings are subjective. They may or may not be accurate to your preferences. However, the review is guaranteed to be impartial.